Health Reboot: Juicing my Way to a Healthier Lifestyle.

07 May 2018

Disclosure: Breville Canada has supplied me with a Juice Fountain Cold XL to help with my health journey. All opinions are my own.

I’m Joe Cross, Without the Cool Australian Accent

You may have heard of a documentary called Fat Sick & Nearly Dead. If you haven’t, it’s about an Australian chap named Joe Cross who was 100lbs overweight, taking many medications, and suffering from a debilitating auto immune disorder. He had come to the conclusion that medicines would only help him short term, and not solve his long-term health issues. You can watch Fat Sick & Nearly Dead here.

Frustrated, Joe turns to the only option left… his body’s ability to heal itself. He trades in junk food for a juicer, travels to the USA, and hits the road with a goal to only drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for 60 days. Along the way, he meets a truck driver named Phil Staples, who has the same auto immune disorder. What follows is not one, but two inspirational stories of two guys, juicing their way to better health, and prolonging their lives.

Missed Flight

On a recent trip, I had a connecting flight I needed to catch. The time between flights was only 30 minutes, and my first flight landed a few minutes late. The kicker? The connecting flight was in another terminal. The quickest way between terminals was to walk. Waiting for the shuttle would have made me late. So I ran (and briskly walked when I was out of breath – which was often) to the other terminal, went through the security check again, and after almost passing out, arrived at the gate, only to find out I had just missed the plane. I ended up staying an extra night, and flying home early the next morning.

I was frustrated. 10 years ago, I could have run that distance, pushing one of my daughters in a stroller, and still made it without feeling like I was going to die. Fast forward to today, I was glad I missed the flight. I needed a shower and a change of clothes, because I was drenched, exhausted, and had a tremendous headache.

But the missed flight wasn’t all. While on the trip, there was one day where I knew I would need to do a lot of walking. So I rented a scooter/moped, which helped me see more of the destination in a lesser period of time, without getting tired out. This helped, and was fun, but if I was a lot lighter, would not have been necessary.

Living in Pain

Three years ago, I was able to drop 45lbs be eating healthy and working out. I had successfully given up my biggest vice… soda pop. A year later, I went through a time in my life where I was always super stressed, things weren’t going well at work, and all I wanted to do was stay in bed. I stopped eating well. I stopped going to the gym. I started gaining weight. I gained back the 45lbs I worked so hard to lose, and haven’t been able to shed that weight since.

I tried. I succeeded. I didn’t maintain. I failed.

My body hurts. I am always in pain, and I take medication to ease that pain.

Help is Here… Time To Get Juicing.

The Breville Juice Fountain Cold XL features a large 3.5 inch feed chute, and can extract 70 fluid ounces of nutrient rich juice, up to 5x faster than a ‘cold press’ machine. Cold Spin Technology allows the juice to flow up and through the stainless steel cutting disc, surrounded by an Italian-made mesh filter, to ensure the temperature of the juices do not increase by more than than 2°F. This process retains a higher yield of minerals and vitamins from the fruits and vegetables you juice. It really does make juicing easier.

With the included seal & store jug, I will be able to juice larger quantities of vegetables and fruits, and store them in my fridge for up to 3 days.

The keyword here is “help”. This is only a tool to help me on my journey. I need to have the willpower to keep this journey going. That is where family, friends, and you all come in… to encourage me, and hold me accountable.

I am looking forward to juicing all kinds of healthy fruits and vegetables with my new juicer. I will be posting some of the juice recipes I create that I love. I hope you follow my health journey, encourage, and support me along the way.

Craig Silva

Craig is a husband, a father, team leader, senior youth group coordinator, designer, brander, community builder, volunteer, and blogger. At work, he leads the social media community management team for Ford of Canada. Craig likes to go camping, travel, go on road trips, watch movies, read with his girls, build stuff, operate the grill, and play bass guitar. In June 2017, PR firm Cision identified Craig as one of Canada’s top 10 most popular male bloggers in the parents and family space. Known as Big Daddy Kreativ, his blog specializes in travel, lifestyle, food, automotive, events, parenting, movies, tech, recipes, health, pets, reviews, and giveaways.

Comments

Its weird the pop addiction…I quit when pregnant and had horrible cravings…had emergency surgery two years ago for a hernia and have not had a drop of pop since and NO cravings (and we were drinking one two litre bottle a day)

For me, it was in my late teens. I started working the night shift as a security guard, while still in school. Coffee didn’t cut it to keep me awake, so I switched to pop. That definitely did it. I was drinking upwards of 4-5 cans a shift. The problem didn’t end there… it continued for many years, switching back and forth between regular and diet pop. Eventually, I gave it up in 2013. It was definitely my biggest vice, and a huge factor for my weight gain.

Way to go Craig!! Pardon the pun, but may you be filled with the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace , patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, as you journey to better health my friend. I pray that you are in less pain and have more energy as you travel your journey. So proud of you!